Spring Equinox on Good Harbor Bay in Sleeping Bear Dunes

Northern Michigan Outdoors: Editor of Traverse Magazine Jeff Smith joins up with friends to celebrate the first day of spring. The spring equinox bonfire kicks off in true Northern Michigan style—with snow down on Good Harbor Bay. But while taking in the last of winter's flurries, Jeff learns the unexpected story of a man's devotion to his recently deceased wife:

"He told me his wife had recently died and that shortly before she passed, she asked him to come down to Good Harbor Bay to get her some rocks, because she'd always loved the rocks here. So he came down to the beach in the middle of winter to look for some rocks. And this winter, there was a lot of snow and ice, and the beaches were buried in mounds of it. Think about trying to rock hunt in that—bring an ice ax and snow shovel. But when he showed up, he found a big shelf of ice along the shore, and on the ice shelf there were waiting dozens of perfectly round stones, each the exact same size, a little bigger than a baseball, just sitting there, ready for him to choose."